Governance & Reports

This document was commissioned by the SESLIP as a response to the need for Children’s Services to work in cooperation with academy chains, multi-academy trusts and standalone academies in an increasingly diverse educational landscape.

Many authorities had already produced local agreements often with a particular focus on data sharing; this document was not intended to replace these agreements but to provide a basis for discussion with academies. In addition several academy chains have schools in a number of authorities in the south east region and the document may assist in benchmarking ways of working between local authorities and multi academy trusts.

There are three sections:

Working in Cooperation -which sets out the general principles

Local Dialogue Template – which can be tailored to suit individual discussions

Respective Responsibilities – which sets out the legislative background and refers to current departmental guidance

The draft was also circulated to a number of Academy chains, the Department for Education and the LGA for comment during the consultation process.

The Voice of the Child: Completed May 2014

This study was commissioned by the Regional Corporate Parenting Network and coordinated on their behalf by West Sussex County Council with funding from the SESLIP.

The research explores issues around how the voice of children looked after is captured and embedded in the work of Corporate Parenting Panels.

It explores practice within the framework of seven research questions developed with regional partners and designed to improve understanding of local practice and to support learning from each other.